Can we play nicely, press people?
“Four current national newspaper editors are among dozens of journalists named in claims against the Mail papers as having engaged in unlawful information gathering … Tony Gallagher (editor of the Times of London), Ben Taylor (Sunday Times), Victoria Newton (Sun) and David Dillon (Mail on Sunday) stand accused of having broken the law, … by a group of people including Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Simon Hughes, Prince Harry and Elton John”. And the Labour response to this state of affairs?
“Thangam Debbonaire, Labour’s shadow culture secretary and thus its spokesperson on media affairs … was asked to confirm that Labour would not ‘seek to revive the second stage of the Leveson Inquiry (which was cancelled by the Tories in 2018 and which was supposed to investigate criminality in the media). And she replied ‘Yes’”. Do go on.
“We have to make sure that, no matter what, we do protect our free press. When I say “no matter what’, I don’t mean: they’re not allowed to break the law, they’re not allowed to harass people - that’s already a criminal offence. So there are plenty of things that are covered by criminal law” she claimed.
And that wasn’t all: “There is already media regulation, there is already the criminal and civil law. We don’t have plans to do anything, any new legislation in that area, no.” We know just how effective the current regulatory environment is regarding the press. It isn’t. IPSO is not fit for purpose.
Here's your answer
Whatever dirt the right-wing press has on senior Labour figures can be dished with no fear of any comeback. This means that Peter Mandelson, for some reason brought into Keir Starmer’s inner sanctum, will find the guns opening up on him from day one of the campaign, his friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein likely to be front and centre. And it gets worse.
Remember the pack of lies pushed by the Mail titles about deputy leader Angela Rayner? The claim that she flashed the Tory front bench at PMQs? And the claim that she and Starmer had broken the Covid laws, which was also untrue? All that will be dug up and put out there. Ed Miliband is still a front bench figure. They got away with kicking him last time, and will do again.
The press will howl “Anti-Semitism” while recycling the anti-Semitic smear of Miliband’s late father. Labour won’t lift a finger, so desperate is the party to play nice with the press. Which will get them nowhere, because there is no such thing as playing nice when it comes to the press. The Murdoch and Rothermere press will kick Starmer and his pals black and blue.
Some of the dirt to be thrown at Labour, and plenty already stored up ready for the off, is likely to be the product of unlawful information gathering. But if Labour is to take such a relaxed approach to such mere details, who is going to prosecute the perpetrators? By the time anything happens, the circus will have moved on - even if Labour won. The press would rather they didn’t.
The Red Team now has a sticker on its back. It says KICK ME, PRESS PEOPLE. Unwise doesn’t even begin to cover it.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
15 comments:
Well, I suppose if they were going to tighten up control on the Fourth Estate, best to keep quiet about it until after they get elected...
I'll tell you what DOES "cover it", Tim.
Red tory cowardice. Plus red tory complicity.
Hence a worthless far right Parliament.
It doesn't matter. They'll still get into Downing Street as fully paid up members of the Arslikan Club. The "kicking" is just to ensure they toe the Tory line. Standard corporate media procedure.
As contrasts between considered, intelligent thought and kneejerk boneheadedness, post one above and posts two and three provide brilliant examples.
Today's latest Starmer Quislingism.
Six "pledges".
Which is four less than he made, lied about and predictably broke on his way to the führerbunker.
The fellow is as big a liar and charlatan as Bozo. A perfect representative for the facile Micawber Tendency and its claque of lower middle class clerks.
Yes, I'm sure Starmer really will do the whole press regulation thing when he has a mandate to do precisely the opposite.
One suspects that Starmer won't flip flop here unfortunately.
Mildly interesting to note the development of pr bullshit over the last couple of years. The new 'technique' involves the client meff parading, preferably in rolled up shirt sleeves, up and down in front of obedient seal-clappers, jazz-handing while pausing occasionally to cue seal-clapping. Even billionaire Roland Rat Sunak has tried it.
A soap opera of mediocrity by and for deluded dangerous fools. Britain's next gang of front men and women of spivs and barrow boys/girls, presumably they too as short of 'emotional space' as Starmer.
Did you not read the article? Whether the Labour party announces better oversight of the press (should they win of course) or not, the press will STILL give them a kicking from day one of the election campaign. Already the 'signs of the press warning to Starmer' are disappearing and the smear campaigns ramping up - and Sunak hasn't even fired the starting gun. At least the party could show some backbone and try an put some clear water between themselves and the Torys? Or is that, once more, just too much to ask?
If you'd watched his interview on CH4 news last night, you'd have heard the utter helmet say that he believes that most of his original ten pledges are "more or less intact".
I read the article anonymous and agree with you fully. I don't see them taking the press on, before or after election.
I suspect Bertie hasn't read the article in question though, jumped straight to the comments.
With emphasis on the 'less'...
I'm concerned about the defeatism that's increasingly prevalent in the comments here. Some of you are behaving as if Starmer has already won.
But there are months to go before the election and that's plenty of time for the electorate, with the aid of the Tory press and Zelo St Comments regulars, to come round to the realisation that the metropolitan meff helmet Quiffed Quisling turncoat traitor Starmer and his party are not worth turning out to vote and missing Love Island for.
It's within our grasp if we all pull together that we'll be able to wake up on that Friday morning in October or January, or whatever, safe in the knowledge that we can snuggle back down under the horsehair-stuffed sackcloth and look forward to another 5 years in our comfort zone, moaning about the government of Sunak, Braverman, Patel, Philp, a rejuvenated Johnson, Jenrick, McVey, Rees-Mogg, Gullis, Drax, Francois and Badenoch. Let's drop the defeatism and make that dream a reality.
One more push! Go back to your keyboards and prepare for Opposition!
18:31.
There is no opposition in a de facto one party state.
Especially a state fronted by a far right Zionist-without-qualification who lacks emotional space, moral sensibility and courage.
So there'll be more of the same tory thieving from the assorted gimps, meffs and Micawbers in Quisling "Labour". You'll fit Right in.
That's the spirit, Anonymous! Ever ready to answer the call.
More of this and we have nothing to fear!
12:36.
Too many exclamation marks make a hysteric.
Tsk tsk.
-11/10. Serious regression.
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